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Week ahead: Obama’s last budget; Yellen back before Congress

Week ahead: Obama’s last budget; Yellen back before Congress–4gh.,b12-1

President Obama will release his fiscal 2017 budget proposal on Tuesday. Congressional leaders won’t hold a hearing on the president’s full proposal for the first time in more than 20 years, but there will still be lots of action on it. Committees will grill Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen on the budget, and individual panels will question the agency heads under their purview.

GOP won’t hold hearing on full budget

The House and Senate Budget won’t hold a hearing on the final budget of President Obama’s tenure in the White House. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) on Thursday said they won’t schedule hearings with Shaun Donovan, the White House’s budget director, to review the president’s fiscal 2017 budget. Enzi dismissed the incoming proposal, saying Thursday it would likely be loaded with “new spending proposals instead of confronting our government’s massive overspending and debt.”

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen will testify before Senate Finance on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.

Yellen testifies on monetary policy

Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen will testify before the House Financial Services Committee at a tumultuous time for the global economy. Yellen will sit before the panel on Wednesday at 10 a.m., where she’ll face questions on how the United States should handle monetary policy during a challenging time. Concerns about the strength of the Chinese economy, plunging oil prices and tensions in the Middle East have tanked trading on markets through the beginning of 2016.

House probes investor visa program

One week after the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a controversial program giving visas to foreign investors, the House Judiciary Committee will debate whether it’s an “underperforming asset” at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday. EB-5 visas lure investment from foreign citizens with the promise of permanent residency in the United States, but critics say the program is riddled with fraud and national security blind spots.